A US Navy battleship suffered $30 million in damages after a drone accidentally crashed into it during a military exercise and injured two sailors.

The incident occurred last November near Point Mugu, California,
but the website USNI just recently reported the Navy will need
about six months to fully repair the USS Chancellorsville.

According to the original Navy Times report on the accident, a
malfunctioning Northrop Grumman BQM-74 crashed into the port side
of the Chancellorsville during a training exercise that involved
a routine radar test. The ship “was heavily damaged by the
impact of a test target,” while the 13-foot drone itself
“crippled a key computer center integral to the ship's
cutting-edge combat systems.”

The Chancellorsville had about 300 crewmen onboard at the time of
the collision. Two were treated for minor burns, though the Navy
did not say how the individuals were injured. Sailors had only a
four-second warning once drone operators realized they lost
control over the BQM-74.

“There was just a breakdown in communications … and the ship
had no time to react,” an unnamed crewman told the Navy
Times.

As USNI reported, BQM-74 drones are usually outfitted with a
feature that would keep the machine from colliding into a naval
vessel when control is lost, but it’s unclear whether or not this
kind of capability was activated. The Navy added that the cause
of the crash is still under investigation.

While the United States has deployed drones around the world, the
unmanned vehicles have proven to be very susceptible to crashes.
According to an NBC News report from last March, “drones are
30 to 300 percent more likely to crash than small civil
aircrafts.” A 2012 survey from Bloomberg also found that for
every 100,000 hours of drone flights, there are 9.31 accidents.

Despite these concerns, the Federal Aviation Administration
recently announced the
six states that will develop drone-testing sites as the agency
paves the way for the vehicles to occupy US airspace, with some
sites specifically focusing on developing “failure modes” for
instances when a drone malfunctions. In 2012, Congress eased
licensing restrictions related to domestic drone use, while the
FAA expects roughly 7,500 drones to be roaming US skies within
five years.

Some studies have estimated that a domestic drone industry could
create between 70,000 – 100,000 jobs and generate $80 billion in
economic activity. Privacy advocates, however, aren’t as keen on
the prospect of drones hovering over American soil; the American
Civil liberties Union has previously criticized the prospect,
saying it would move the country towards "a surveillance
society in which our every move is monitored, tracked, recorded
and scrutinized by the authorities.”